Paid family, medical leave in NH spotlight

PORTSMOUTH — The much-discussed issue of paid family and medical leave will be back in the political spotlight again Thursday.

That morning, Gov. Chris Sununu goes in front of both houses of the legislature at the Statehouse to give his address for New Hampshire’s next biennium budget. During the Republican governor’s speech, he’s expected to provide details of a voluntary two-state paid family and medical leave program he introduced last month in a joint appearance with GOP Gov. Phil Scott of Vermont.

Hours later, the Democratic majority in the state Senate is expected to pass a bill (Senate Bill 1 or SB1) that would create a mandatory paid family and medical leave program.

“This is a plan that is affordable and accessible to all working families and all small businesses,” Senate Majority Leader Dan Feltes said Monday during a meeting with the Seacoast Media Group editorial board.

The Democrat from Concord is the prime sponsor of the bill, which supporters say would provide economic security to hardworking Granite State families and small businesses.

Feltes said the bill would “help to level the playing field between small businesses and big businesses in terms of that competition for tomorrow’s workforce.”

The measure calls for up to 12 weeks of paid leave at up to 60 percent of a worker’s salary. Employees could use the benefit for the birth or adoption of a child, to take care of a sick family member, or to manage their own serious illness.

It would be paid for with a .5% payroll tax, covered by an employer or passed along to the worker. Feltes said that works out to $5 per week for the average employee. There is no opt out for workers, unless an employer already has a paid family and medical leave plan in place.

The plan would be administered by the state Department of Employment Security, which oversees the unemployment insurance program, although the Democratic bill would allow for the option of an outside company to manage the program.

It’s doubtful the bill will receive support from Republicans on Thursday.

During a committee hearing last month, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Morse of Salem said, “It is an income tax, plain and simple. Page two, line 35, right there in black and white,” Morse spotlighted, referring to the bill’s language spelling out the tax on wages.

On Monday, Feltes described it as “a payroll deduction.”

“It’s very much like unemployment insurance and workers compensation insurance,” he added.

Pushing back against critics of the bill, Feltes said, “I came to the conclusion that the value of being there with your family, the mitigation of costs to small business, worker retention, that outweighs the concerns on the front end.”

The Senate bill – and a similar measure in the House – are top priorities for Statehouse Democrats, who tried unsuccessfully last year to pass paid family and medical leave. That legislation won bipartisan support in the then-GOP controlled state House but failed in the Senate –where the Republicans also had the majority – after Sununu raised alarms over the bill’s price and opposed the measure.

The issue was front-and-center in last autumn’s gubernatorial campaign, with Democratic nominee Molly Kelly repeatedly slamming Sununu for his scuttling of the bill. Sununu defeated Kelly to win a second two-year term steering the state, but Democrats flipped both the House and Senate, taking the majority in both chambers.

The plan that Sununu and Scott unveiled last month in Littleton would be managed by a private insurer rather than state agencies.

The two governors touted that the key to their program would be the combined buying power of the 18,500 public employees in the two states.

“There is a border, there is a river that separates the two of us, but at the end of the day, we are all part of the same community,” Sununu said.

The program would provide 60 percent of a person’s wage for up to six weeks for a number of qualifying events, including the birth of a child or caring for a close relative who has a serious health condition.

Leading Statehouse Democrats are skeptical about the Sununu-Scott plan. They say they’ve asked multiple times to see his proposal.

“We haven’t seen an actual plan from the governor,” Feltes said.

Looking to the likelihood of hearing details from Sununu during his budget address, which takes place on Valentine’s Day, Feltes said “maybe there will be a lot of love in the air.”

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